An editor for LeanIn.org, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg’s women-forward non-profit, sent out a call for an intern Wednesday. Jessica Bennett, writing to her Facebook followers, said she was seeking a “HIGHLY organized” individual with “editorial and social chops” who would be willing to work for free.

The reaction was swift and fierce. Hundreds of commenters on the social network called the posting “embarrassing,” and a “shameful exploitation.” Someone even started an online petition urging LeanIn to pay up.

The tenor of the conversation around unpaid internships has grown sharper this year, as legal rulings–in particular, a recent Federal court decision that found Fox Searchlight Pictures violated wage laws by not paying interns who worked on the 2010 movie Black Swan–have thrown the issue into the spotlight.

Unpaid internships are common at nonprofits, but more than a few observers–posting on Facebook and elsewhere online–found it strange that a group associated with Sandberg, whose book urges women to ramp up their careers and demand the pay they deserve, would ask contributors to do unpaid work. And it has not gone unnoticed that Sandberg just made $91 million in a sale of Facebook stock earlier this month.

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